One of our favourite things to do is push the couches together and get out a Mummy and the girls DVD. We make popcorn with out popcorn maker - which I have to say is probably one of the best purchases I have ever made! And we lose ourselves in a story for an hour or two. It's a great down time and even more so during the craziness of the festive season. I'm looking forward to settling down over the next few weeks and doing alot more DVD watching with my girls. They have just three days of school left. I have another week beyond that.

I noticed at Kmart that they have popcorn makers on special for just $12 . This would make a lovely family gift with some popcorn kernels and maybe a voucher to a local dvd store. Ours has $1 Tuesdays where even new releases are just $1.

So whats on your to watch list for christmas? Here is ours. Its a bit girly centred -sorry about that - but that's the way our family runs :)

The girls giggle their way through this as do I

One just for me :)

We all love all of these ! One Two and Three

One for just the girls :)

and another one they watch over and over

This is on our to watch list this year

Love love this one

And this is a new release that we absolutely loved - SO SO Funny and sweet you must get it out.

at at the theatre ..

This post was sponsored by KIA. To celebrate the great value of KIA's new cars – such as the Cerato Hatch, a website has been launched so you a can get some great value offers and deals. My favourite deal for this week is Get 50% off a Dell colour cartridge when you buy a Dell printer over $50! at www.getmorevalue.com.au

I'm a shocker for black - in that I ALWAYS wear black -if its not black then its grey or denim - so when I saw this dress at Suzanne Grae the other day I was kinda sceptical- the girls who love to go into the change room made me try it on ..

and it was good - The dress is made of a satin shiny - light as anything- and the top part is jersey - super comfortable. It's a generous size I ended up with a medium usually I wear large .

I wore it yesterday for the girls party and I have a couple of other functions coming up too - I of course popped a short sleeve little cardigan over the top in black - I added a blingy necklace and blingy shoes and it was all good.

I did do a fair anount of kitchen work though and the skirt is not very forgiving for splashes. So if you are in the kitchen I recommend an apron. It was very comfy and light and would be great for Christmas day.

$69.95 at Suzanne Grae.

A photo of me in it? - yes well if i ever get out from behind the camera I would share that with you - this is the model not me - just in case you were wondering LOL

If you have been following me on twitter you would have seen the progress of the Rainbow cake over the last 48 hours.

Back in Dec last year I first noticed this amazing cake and popped it into my tumblr account for prosperity. Since then I have seen it in lots of places - over here on One Charming Party ( a site def to keep an eye one! )

and of course the lovely Mel whipped one up for her hubbys bday last week too.

With all our rainbow stuff from Draw Pilgrim it certainly was a no brainer that we would have a rainbow cake too...

In my usual well planned style- I didn't read a recipe or buy anything and then when I actually went to make the recipe I realised I didn't have any food gels - a quick panicked text to Mel who assured me that food colouring would work just as well.

So with that in mind I ditched all the documented recipes out there and went for my tried and true cupcake recipe - I know you are sick of hearing about it but seriously its good and it never fails and Umm I don't even follow the proper instructions I literally throw all the ingredients ( sorry real chefs stop reading now ) into the mixmaster and umm mix.( not even any sifting eeeek )

That's it.

so I guessed I would need about 5 times the recipe

10 eggs

2.5 cups of caste sugar

5 cups SR flour

vanilla bean paste ( some )

450 grms butter

10 tablespoons of milk ( 1 cup)

mix it all up :)

Then divide into 7 bowls - I measured my "weight" on my kitchen scales so the layers would be evenish - 300 gms each one

then time to add colour

I used the been around forever (1897 according to the box) Queens food colouring sets that come in 4 in a box - red yellow green blue - as I said totally unprepared LOL - apparently the food gel gets a more vibrant colour ...

Anyhow here was my formula for drops

Purple Red 14 Blue 4

Blue Blue 18

Green Green 18

Yellow Yellow 18

( are you impressed with my colour mixing skills so far ?)

Orange Yellow 12 Red 6

Red Red 18

Pink Red 6 Blue 1

The first layer I made was yellow - and I greased and floured my tin - but it still stuck so from then in I also papered the base - SOOO much faster to get out and reboot the next layer. 15 minutes each layer at 180

Now I do have the dodgiest oven ever - uneven heat and likes 180 and the seal is gone so the heat escapes so I was kinda stressing as each layer came out thinking oh this doesn't look good ... kind of brown and weird looking

Keep going its FINE trust me lol

I watched a DVD it was too sad though so I'm not recommending it - and I made pompoms inbetween each layer - cause you are up down up down a lot 7 x 15 minutes cooking time - and prepping the tin inbetween its not a fast cake but it REALLY is easy.

Icing was done the next day - whipped cream between the layers- also helped smooth out any differences in the layers some of mine were a bit wonky - 2 x 600ml cream whipped with two tablespoons of icing sugar

Then covered with just under two tubs of Betty Crocker white frosting - I know you can make your own but nope not me LOL. I used one for the sides and 3/4 for the top and any gaps.

then into the fridge to wait for the party - I actually tried to move it onto a pedestal stand but BIG mistake started to topple and had to quickly fix it so it stayed on the dinner plate I iced it on.

I simply decorated with candles

and when it was time to cut - we cut a big chunk out first to show the effect

17 Adults and 4 children - we still have plenty left over - we did smallish pieces and some of the adults shared their layers -as in a piece between two but it wasn't necessary we did have heaps.

and here are some non iphone photos :)

with the piece cut out to start

and the chunk :)

The colour was pretty vibrant and certainly had the wow effect . The girls LOVED it so much though they did cheekily suggest that I should have done 8 layers one for each of their years - That suggestion was met with silence from me !

It's yummy and good I think for even a non confident cook- give it a go :) - and make sure you tell me if you do! One of my twitter friends said she wanted to do a Christmas version - that would be cool - red and green layers. I don't know if that is what she meant but it would be fun!

More birthday tales soon :)

Tamar xx

If you would like to join in our christmas recipe book please read this post - eek just a few days till kick off -sooo cool:)

Each year through December we create a fun and very popular downloadable recipe book.

This year not only will the downloads be available daily but at the end of the month the recipes will also be collated into an E book for sharing on Issuu. I have just created the 2008 and 2009 versions.

This time 8 years ago - I was in hospital on bed rest - becoming increasingly uncomfortable and wanting to be at home. Little was I to know that less than 72 hours later my two girls would be born with a rush at 33 weeks and 1 day.

I know everyone says it but really where does the time go? This week has been spent organising the myriad of celebrations that we have. The girls like their father love to be social and party - and like me love to cook and craft for occasions - so they are kind of the perfect mix of the two of us.

As well they have just a few days left of school and although we are waiting on school reports I already know they will be excellent - they both love school and excel at all they do. I feel so blessed at their birthday time each year and get silly and emotional at how lucky I am to have them. I know I was gifted them to learn patience and that they teach me everyday - let me tell you!

They are quite quite different but so similar in so many ways. This is their last year in the same class and I'm emotional about that decision too. I know its right but eek its hard.

So tomorrow begins the celebratons with a school party

We made rainbow cupcakes tonight. I use this recipe - it truly is the BEST CUPCAKE RECIPE EVER.

And after much discussion about what style of decorating we would do we settled on rainbow cupcakes

the colours not quite right here - but its purple pink and lime

hidden by white icing

-so when the other kids see them they think boring - but when they bite in they think party - that was Talia's idea.

Richard found the best cupcake wrappers - rainbow stripes. I found these cupcake toppers over on Pilgrim Lee's blog

and I braved an icing bag and star nozzle for the first time - and can I just say how easy it was?? Like amazingly easy - and very kind if you stuffed up- as in you can't really notice errors

I used Betty Crocker frosting - sorry I know so slack but it works good and tastes yummy and is one less thing to make!

Here they are all lined up- I just popped the toppers in for this photo- but they are in a ziplock bag ready to go for the girls to put in when they hand out .

This is the best cupcake /cake/cookie holder ever - fits 24 cupcakes- two totally seperate parts - Its really great. I got it at General Traders. The only bad thing is its not cheap but I know we will get so much use out of it.

So that's the cupcakes ... which is the prefered option by the teachers as its tricky to cut a cake into however many pieces and its messy.

This covers one child.

We always spend ages trying to think of two things to do and usually go the cupcake cookie or cupcake lollypop option.This year when they girls had convinced me to make heart shaped cookies half dipped in icing and covered with hundreds and thousands - agggghh. I wasn't looking forward to that prep because this is such a busy time at work too- I'm slap bang in the middle of Interal Reviews and Audit for our certificate courses and I have had to move out of my office due to an ongoing issue with damp causing me to have major asthma attacks each time I step in there - We thought it had been solved with the fire and repainting and new carpets but sadly its back with vengence so Imquite ill again. I'm working in a temp office at the moment with all my stuff unaccessible.

SO you can imagine my delight when I found the coolest idea over on Kim Archer's Handmade Christmas - Lollies on sticks - in xmas colours .Thank you Sheree for this clever idea!

We just edited that and made them rainbow coloured - which goes with our rainbow cupcakes and I printed the cute tags by Pilgrim as well.

We have 27 of these lollysticks ready to go and everyone is happy :)

Tomorrow night is the girls annual christmas carols at school so after the class gets sugared up on cupcakes and lollysticks they are singing and dancing as christmas stars..should be fun :)

I guarantee this weekend will be much more tweeting about birthdays and in between we are actually moving across to our finished site for Tari. I know it's been so long in the making - but we are finally there with two collections ready to ship and a christmas blog ready to go

I'm happy to bring you my third installment of Get More Value - sponsored by Kia. If you missed last two weeks the links for week one and week two are here

Week Three - Shopping Handmade

In a perfect world my life would be such that I could/would spend the years making a gifts and squirreling them away for Christmas and birthday. But sadly I don't have the time or sometimes even the talent to make much of what I see and like. This week I bring you some of my favourite buys from etsy - grouped into different price categories. Many of the bits (not all) you see here are hidden in my gifts that I have already organised or are on my to purchase list. - Prices listed are in US dollars ( very close to our own at the moment ) and obviously you also need to factor in shipping...

First up we have Under $5 .. I was amazed at how many LOVELY things I could find for just a few dollars -

Superman Pendant - This is a standard saying in our house about Daddy being Superman - so maybe he needs a pendant to prove it :)

Ringholder Richard lost his wedding ring for three weeks - fell into a drawer and has only just resurfaced - eeekBeer Soap- surely this would be a big hit?

This post was sponsored by KIA. To celebrate the great value of KIA's new cars – such as the Cerato Hatch, a website has been launched so you a can get some great value offers and deals.My favourite deal for this week is buy a Xmas hamper from Hampers Only valued at $95 + and receive a FREE bottle of Chandon Rose at www.getmorevalue.com.au

This year I am back wrapping and I couldn't be more excited. I'll be down at Robina volunteering for CareFlight. Their wrapping is just near Bed Bath and Table- well it was last year I'm guessing it'll be back in the same spot :)

Typically a shift is 4 hours and in the lead up to christmas there are lots of shifts available. I'm doing an afternoon one with a girlfriend I have roped in and some evening ones so Richard is home with the girls

It can get quite busy but mostly its just lovely to chat away to people as you wrap their gifts- There's lots of Dads with little ones telling you the stories behind their choices... - or busy mums with lots of toys they want hidden from prying eyes. Teenage boys are usually very shy and sweet too with gifts of chocolates and perfumes for Mums and grandmas and girlfriends.

The other ladies working with you are usually good for a lovely old chat too.

So if you can find a few hours to spare I highly recommend it as a nice way to do something for the community.

As a bonus I always get some good ideas and tips about bargains too!

Here are some links to places that are looking for wrappers - I'm sure there are heaps more

If none of those suit you and you are still keen just do a google for volunteer gift wrapping -or contact your local shopping centre and ask which organisation is running their gift wrapping service this year.

If you do end up at Robina pop in and say hello to me :)

Happy wrapping - do let me know if you decide to volunteer and make sure you come back and tell me any fun stories!

It's Friday night - my favourite time of the week -with the whole weekend stretched out before me- though realistically tonight is my only down time.

We have two parties, a visit to grandparents, a visit to the temple with Poh Poh, a tyre appointment for a car and a church commitment this weekend.

With just over a week to go till the girls birthday I have lots of last minute bits to organize and I just read on twitter that its only 36 days until Christmas.

As well I have a FULL weekend of Tari stuff to finish off and a serious amount of baking to do.I’m not sure how thats all going to work for me. I am however determined to get to Sunday night and have MANY things crossed off my list.

I picked the girls up from school this afternoon and took them for a dentist appointment- then we headed to Mc Cafe for a coffee with friends and recap of the week. They also work in schools so we swapped Year 12 graduation stories today saw the last day for Year 12 in Queensland. The whole schoolie thing starts tomorrow morning. In ten years that will be my girls( the graduating - not necessarily the schoolies ! LOL ) - and I know it sounds so long away but I’m sure Im going to blink and it will be here .I was chatting to the Head of Maths the other day about time passing so fast and he said well its like this - when you are 3 and you are waiting a year it 1/3 of your life - it takes a long time - but when you are 40 and you are waiting a year its only 1/40th of your life - so much faster - Kinda does make sense really.

Anyhow after Maccas we stopped to get the fixings for homemade burgers maxibons ( YUM ) and some DVD’s....

Richard's making the burgers and the girls and I are going to watch Nativity.

Once they are off to bed I’m creating and working in front of DVD’s I have the Back up Plan , Christmas Angel and I am Love .

It’s an ambitious list

I’ll let you know how I go. Might have to send Richard out for coffee. Hope you get to spend your evening doing exactly what you want :)

Welcome to my blog, I am so happy you came to visit. I share the stories of my life creating, documenting and loving as a Mumma to twin girls. I am navigating a clean eating lifestyle as I run towards being a breast cancer survivor.